Paraguayan former Cosmos and Boca striker Cabanas dies

ASUNCION (Reuters) - Former New York Cosmos, Boca Juniors and Paraguay forward Roberto Cabanas has died aged 55, his brother said on Monday.

“My brother died suddenly of a heart attack,” Valerio Cabanas told Paraguayan radio station Cardinal. “He had never complained of pains... for us it was a big blow.”

Cabanas, who played for Cosmos in the early 1980s and was the former NASL’s top scorer and MVP in 1983, had spells in France with Brest and Olympique Lyonnais and won league titles with America in Colombia in 1985 and 1986 and Boca Juniors in Argentina in 1992.

He was a member of Paraguay’s Copa America-winning squad as a teenager in 1979 and played at the 1986 World Cup, scoring twice in a 2-2 draw with Belgium in the group stage before they were eliminated in a 3-0 second round loss to England.